Pages

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Dairy farmers to get daily payment

source: THE HINDU :-

Milk procurement in 30 villages to be digitised at a cost of around Rs. 35 lakh

The State government will help the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to launch a pilot project to ensure spot payment to farmers who supply milk to village-level cooperative societies. This will be in tune with the targets set by the milk-shed programme which aims to gradually increase procurement of milk.

Among the objectives of the project is to eliminate middlemen who buy milk from farmers and sell it to the union in some villages.

The district administration has decided to fund a project by the Bidar-Gulbarga-Yadgir Milk Union to digitise milk procurement in 30 selected villages at the cost of around Rs. 35 lakh.

“Each society will be given an automated milk buying machine that the farmers will interact with. They can measure the milk, test its fat content and pour into a can. They will get a bill and their money will be transferred to their bank account. Farmers will also get a confirmation SMS. Each farmer will get the money equal to the value of fat and the volume of milk they supply. This will increase the confidence of farmers in the union and lead to a healthy competition among farmers to supply large volumes of good-quality milk,” Revanasiddappa Patil, Union president, told The Hindu .

Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, said, “We will start the project in the best-performing villages so that it will act as an incentive. A transparent system that ensures prompt payment will only increase milk production and procurement. We are confident that automation will help us put in place such a system.”

Procurement by the 200 societies in the district is around 50,000 litres per day as of now. “We plan to double it in a year by increasing procurement of each cooperative society and by increasing the number of societies. We are starting 60 new village societies and rejuvenating another 100 defunct societies,” he added.

A 10-member task force comprising officials of the Veterinary Department and the KMF will monitor the project, Mr. Tewari said.

The district is funding a pilot project by the Bidar-Gulbarga-Yadgir Milk Union

Current procurement by 200 societies in the district is around 50,000 litres per day

Plan to double the procurement and establish more cooperative societies